Death in ER Ruled Homicide

Paul Grieco

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A recent ruling by an Illinois coroner's jury, exposes a problem emergency room patients know all too well, that is many times the wait in the emergency room is far too long. The decision found that a 49 year old patient died of a heart attack in the emergency room and that her death was "a result of gross deviations from the standard of care that a reasonable person would have exercised in this situation" The patient had waited for almost two hours to see a doctor for complaints of nausea, shortness of breath and chest pains-all symptoms of a heart attack. By the time her name was called to see the doctor, she was found unconscious and later pronounced dead.

As has been discussed on numerous injury board blog sites, the potential for a medical malpractice claim arises when there is a deviation in the standard of care performed by a medical professional and that deviation results in harm to a patient.